Ann Claire Williams
Ilana Diamond Rovner
A federal appeals court has declined to revive a woman’s claim that Evanston police violated her Fourth Amendment rights by forcing her to remove her sweater so she could be frisked.
In an unpublished order, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed a jury’s verdict in favor of officers Timothy Messing and Rebecca Niziolek in a lawsuit brought by Jaleh Banaei.
The court held Banaei failed to preserve her argument that the verdict was not supported by the evidence.
But even if it did consider the merits of Banaei’s argument, the court wrote, she still would have lost.
The court held the officers presented “ample evidence” supporting the jury’s conclusion that the search of Banaei was reasonable.
W. Grant Farrar, Evanston’s corporation counsel, represented the police officers before the 7th Circuit.
Banei represented herself before the appeals court.
Neither Farrar nor Banaei could be reached for comment.
In 2008, Messing and Niziolek arrested Banaei after a tenant in a building she owns alleged she had bumped him in the chest.
Banaei was taken to the police station and frisked in a booking room before being placed in a cell. She was released about two hours later.
A misdemeanor battery charge brought against Banaei was later dropped.
Banaei sued the city of Evanston and several police officers, alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution and Illinois law.
U.S. District Judge William T. Hart dismissed most of the counts and later granted summary judgment in favor of Messing and Niziolek on the remaining counts.
In 2013, the 7th Circuit revived a claim of false arrest that Banaei leveled against Messing and Niziolek.
A nine-member jury returned a verdict in favor of the officers in a trial in 2014.
In its order Wednesday, a 7th Circuit panel conceded there was conflicting evidence about the circumstances surrounding the patdown.
For example, Banaei testified Niziolek conducted the frisk as male and female officers watched and laughed, the panel wrote.
Banaei, it wrote, also contended that the search amounted to a strip search because she was wearing only a bra and a sheer undergarment beneath her sweater.
But Messing and Niziolek gave a different account, the panel wrote.
The officers, it wrote, testified Messing was the only other officer present in the room and that he did not watch as Niziolek patted down Banei.
The officers also testified that protective patdowns are routinely conducted before placing someone who has been arrested in a holding cell, the panel wrote.
“Banaei’s testimony differed on some points, e.g., whether other officers were present during the search, but resolving conflicting testimony is the jury’s role, not ours,” the panel wrote.
Panel members were Judges Kenneth F. Ripple, Ilana Diamond Rovner and Ann Claire Williams. Jaleh Banaei v. Timothy Messing, et al., No. 14-3076.